We Started as Enemies in the Top Lane. Then He Became the One I Trusted Most.

The Top Lane: From Solo Kill to Back to Back

Callum first met Dorian in the top lane, at the river.

Callum played a heavy tank. Dorian played a light assassin. At level one, they traded. Dorian auto-attacked him three times. Callum auto-attacked back twice. They both hit level two at the same moment. Dorian flashed forward. Callum flashed under his tower. Dorian did not chase. He turned and took the scuttle crab.

In all chat, Callum typed: “Dive?”

Dorian replied: “No mana.”

Dorian’s mana bar was full. Callum remembered the lie.

For the next three games, they were on opposite teams. Callum got collapsed on by three enemies. Dorian walked past. He did not step on him. Callum typed: “Thanks.” Dorian typed: “Don’t thank me. You die, the wave is mine.” Callum laughed once and pushed his headset tighter against his ears.

The fourth game, they were on the same team. Callum picked tank top. Dorian picked fighter top. Callum gave him a cannon minion. Dorian said nothing. When Callum got ganked, Dorian pinged “enemy missing.” The signal rang three times. Callum retreated.

Callum began to notice Dorian’s rhythm. Dorian stole jungle at level three. He dove at level four. He split-pushed at seven minutes. Callum started pinging “request assist” when Dorian split. Dorian did not answer. He would push tier two and then come. Callum took the not-coming as coming.

Dragon fight. Callum got crowd-controlled. Dorian came out of the brush and blocked the mage’s ultimate. Dorian’s health bar went red. Callum got a quadra kill. The screen went gray. Callum reached for the antacids on the desk. The blister pack was empty. He crushed it and threw it in the bin. When he came back, a friend request was blinking. Dorian had accepted. There was no message.

They duo queued. Callum shot-called. Dorian split-pushed. At the key dragon fight, Callum yelled, “Come.” Dorian was bot lane, pushing. Callum lost the fight. In all chat, he typed: “Why didn’t you listen?”

Dorian typed: “Why didn’t you look at the map?”

Callum pressed W hard. Dorian took off his headset. Silence. Callum typed a line. He deleted it. Dorian sent “my bad.” He unsent it.

Callum used control to deal with fear. Dorian used escape to deal with fear. Neither was wrong. Both hurt the other.

The friend list went gray. Callum solo queued. The top lane was still that lane. The scuttle crab spawned. He bought a Bramble Vest, then sold it. Dorian, in another game, pinged “enemy missing.” He pinged it to the whole team. No one answered. He unsent it.

Callum’s pothos wilted. He watered it. Dorian’s keyboard cover curled at the edge. He pressed it flat.

New season. In champion select, Callum saw Dorian’s ID. He did not shot-call. He typed: “I’ll take tank top. You carry.”

Dorian replied: “Enemy jungler starts red.”

Callum typed: “I’ll ward.”

They won. Callum typed: “Log on tomorrow?”

Dorian typed: “Eight.”

Callum went to change the water cooler jug. This time there was water.

The next day, they met at the gaming café. Callum brought two bottles of water. Dorian brought a pack of cigarettes. They did not shake hands. They started a game. Dorian asked, “What are you playing?”

Callum said, “Tank top.”

Dorian said, “Then I’ll fighter top.”

Same as in game. After one match, Dorian said, “You’re worse in person.” Callum said, “You’re louder in person.” Then they went for pasta. Callum added parmesan. Dorian added chili flakes. They did not say they were friends. They came back the next week.

Another season. Top lane. They met at the river. Dorian auto-attacked Callum once. Callum auto-attacked back. Then they went to their lanes. The wave arrived.

Callum pinged: “Request assist.”

Dorian pinged: “Engage.”

The pings overlapped. The game began.

The shape repeats. It is older than the game. In Malory’s Arthur cycle, Arthur fights Pellinore and loses the first round. Merlin saves him by putting Pellinore to sleep. Later Arthur praises Pellinore’s skill and asks him to join the Round Table. Pellinore becomes one of Arthur’s closest supporters. In the Iliad, Achilles and Patroclus are already bound together, but their story still turns on violence: the camp, the quarrel, the refusal, the death. The Western gunfighter meets his match at high noon, and by sundown they ride together. The joust ends with a broken lance and a shared cup. The top lane is another version of the lists. The river is the sand. The minions are the crowd. The scuttle crab is the prize nobody admits they want.

The fight forces information into the open. You learn what a man does when he can kill you and chooses not to. You learn what he does when he loses and does not become small. The top lane makes that lesson repeatable. It gives two people a small, brutal classroom and a long semester.

They never talked about the fight. They never apologized. They changed. Callum stopped buying control wards for himself and started buying them for Dorian’s split. Dorian stopped taking the cannon minion when Callum was behind. They learned each other’s tells: Callum’s W key, Dorian’s headset. They knew the silence before a gank. They understood the ping that meant “I see you.” Friendship, for them, took the form of repeated actions. A ward, a ping, a water bottle.

One night, after a bad loss, Callum typed: “You should have come.”

Dorian typed: “You should have waited.”

Neither sent it. They queued again. The next game, Callum waited. Dorian came. They won. No one said anything. The pothos grew a new leaf. The keyboard cover stayed flat. The water cooler was full.

Another season. Top lane. River. Dorian auto-attacked. Callum auto-attacked. They went to their lanes. The wave met. Callum pinged. Dorian pinged. The pings overlapped. The game began.